The season is weird in Central Vietnam. Instead of the tropical heat a foreigner could expect in Vietnam, we first had the drizzling month from late November to early January reminiscent of autumn in the northern countries except for one thing: it was warm, like, +22°C in the afternoon, +19°C in the night. However, the drizzling marathon has ended and we entered the time of rather chill nights but sunny warm days, while all of nature is in deep sleep.
Google weather forecast for this week
It looks like July in Scandinavia except the plants are saying: "It's winter! No work! We have a right to sleep!" 😄
No, not every tree is bare but these gorgeous banyans are, partly, as you see. And look how everything looks autumnal... in the tropics!
That's January 25, I was (and am) in the old capital of Vietnam, Hue. The city's economic importance has declined significantly since the imperial times, but in terms of the number of banyan trees, Hue is still the capital of Vietnam.
I'd say, except Hue, you can't see many banyans in Vietnamese cities. The abundance of these trees is rather a feature of Thai cities. So why Hue, located in the middle of Vietnam, has this common characteristics with Thailand?..
My guess is that Hue just preserved the old traditions of Vietnamese Buddhism which, although originated from China, had had time to absorb the Southeast Asian banyan cult through, it might be, the influence of the Cham Hinduism.
North Vietnam was under the greater influence of China and was controlled by the anti-religious Communists longer than Hue.
As for the South, Saigon was ruled directly by French in the colonial times, was heavily influenced by Catholicism, and had a very large Chinese population, so old Vietnamese Buddhism had a smaller foundation there.
Okay, enough history, let's look at trees that I found on the amazing Bạch Đằng embankment and the neighborhood.
Yellow chrysanthemums are common ritual flowers in Vietnam, so this bouquet was probably left just for fun on the tree after the flowers ended their role in a rite. However, decorating trees with mums can have also another subtext since banyan trees often host shrines of Buddhist or mixed Buddhist-spiritistic nature.
The aerial roots of add even more charm to this tree like hair from under huge wooden armpits. 😀
A giant upper arm is almost thicker than the trunk:
It's probably a remnant of the older tree enveloped and finally absorbed by the roots of a younger one. Both could be the same banyan species, or not.
A beautiful ent biceps with a socket on it (bottom left)! 😀
A basic DIY-shrine. A couple of horses are the most common decoration of such shrines in Hue, it's a city tradition.
And that's a more exotic beast in a shrine partly absorbed by a banyan:
Cavernous and unfriendly:
What ancient secrets does this creature hold? What spells can it teach you if you appease it with offerings?
Speaking of offerings:
Girlish offerings on the tree bark. More of them:
Ever tried bribing a tree? Give it a shot before you scoff. 😀 (I will ask the owner of my hostel what these offerings mean.)
January 29 is the Lunar New Year, the most important holiday in Vietnam, called Tet. Yellow chrysanthemums, red lanterns, and mandarin trees are everywhere:
Not a shrine but a shop, selling potted plants for Tet.
However, they also have a praying place there:
Do you see the incense sticks in the top right corner? When I was there, a man was praying with these sticks in his hands. But I decided not to disturb him with my camera.
It was getting dark and was going back to the hostel but I wanted first to say hello to an amazing tree I met previously. This:
How do you like this giant brokkoli?
Isn't that magic?
Doesn't that explain why people search for Buddha's wisdom beside these marvelous trees which literally pull you out of your stream of consciousness and re-connect directly to the present moment?..
Merry Tet, guys, and may you achieve enlightenment in 2025!
More Southeast Asian stories to come, stay tuned! Check out my previous posts on my personal Worldmappin map.
I took these images with a Nikkor 24mm f/2.8D on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 on January 25, 2025, in Hue, Vietnam.